Plastic is part of our body – Plastic is everywhere. We have to think about it and work with it – everywhere, always.

Claudia Schmitz works with video projection onto water. The more polluted a body of water, the better for the projection – and vice versa, the cleaner the water, the less is visible of her projection.

Pure or Plastic.

Claudia Schmitz also projects onto wind-activated sculptures made from found plastic rubbish. Her video performances are live improvisations about water, waste, and the sounds of waste in water. The participatory part of her project comprises the joined collecting of plastic waste – on the coast, or on the open sea.

In the past, the artist worked with recycled plastic in her series “In Between” (since 2015 – ongoing), a piece about borders, migration, and privilege. She installed it in the streets of New York City, Seoul, Berlin, Budapest…, at the Gangwon International Biennale, at the University Museum Hong Kong.

In Between – Intervention – NYC, Berlin, Seoul, Budapest…

During the public workshops, the participants and Claudia Schmitz will free stretches of coastline or designated areas in the sea from accumulated plastic waste. We will then together transform the found plastic into wind-activated sculptures. The sculptures will provide moving silver screens for her public video interventions.

Furthermore, Claudia Schmitz will develop a video performance based on our joined experiences, using videos and underwater-videos taken while collecting waste. The movement and rhythm of the video will be intertwined with the sound of the collision of plastic waste in/under water.
The main aim of her research will be to find a central visual metaphor for pollution, health hazards, and responsibility – summing up the big issues of THE UNIVERSAL SEA.

A collaboration with the shipping industry (fishing waste on the sea) and plastic producing industries (research and information on microplastics in human and animal bodies, impact on the environment) is highly desirable.